평범한 사람이 언제나 영웅이 될 수 있는 것은 아니다. 일반사람들은
일상생활에서의 빵이나 버터 아이들을 기르는 일 또 살림살이 등에서 허덕인다. 그러나 일단 기회가 무르익고
큰 목표를 포착하여 확신이 서게 되면 그 단순하고 평범한 사람들이라도 영웅이 되고 역사를 움직이기 시작하여 거대한 전환점이 찾아오게 되는 것이다. 그리고 그들 사이에서 위대한 지도자가 나타나서 전 민족에게 생기를 불어넣고 그들로 하여금 큰 사업을 완수하도록
하는 역할을 담당한다
So Darius was defeated at Marathon. He died in Persia later, and was succeeded by Xerxes. Xerxes also had the ambition to conquer Greece, and he fitted out an expedition for this purpose. And here I shall take you to the fascinating story as told by Herodotus. Artabanus was the uncle of Xerxes. He thought there was danger to the Persian army in going to Greece, and he tried to induce his nephew Xerxes not to war against Greece. Herodotus tells us that Xerxes answered him as follows :
" There is reason in what you say, but you ought not to see danger everywhere or to reckon every risk. If whatever comes up you are going to weigh everything alike, you will never do anything. It is better to be always an optimist and to suffer half the amount of evil, than always to be full of gloomy anticipations and never suffer anything at all. If you attack every proposal made without showing us the right course to follow, you will come to grief as much as those whom you oppose. The scales are evenly balanced. How can a human being know certainly which way they will incline T He cannot. But success generally attends those who wish to act; and it does not
attend those who are timid and balance everything. You see the great power which Persia has attained. If my predecessors on the throne had held your views, or without holding them had had counsellors like you, you would never have seen our kingdom become so great. It is by taking risks that they made us what we are. Great things are achieved through great dangers."
I have given this long quotation because these words of his make us understand the Persian King better than any other account. As it happened, the advice of Artabanus turned out to be correct and the Persian army was defeated in Greece. Xerxes lost, but his words still ring true and contain a lesson for all of us. And to-day, when we are trying to achieve great things, let us remember that we must pass through great dangers before we can reach our
Xerxes, the King of kings, took his great army across Asia Minor and crossed to Europe across the Dardanelles, or the Hellespont as it was called in those days. On his way, it is said, Xerxes paid a visit to the ruins of Troy town, where the Greek heroes of old had battled for Helen. A great bridge was put across the Hellespont for the army to cross; and as the Persian army went across, Xerxes surveyed it, seated on a marble throne on top of a hill near by.
"And," Herodotus tells us, "seeing all the Hellespont covered over with the ships and all the shores and the plains of Abydos full of men, then Xerxes pronounced himself a happy man, and then he fell to weeping. Artabanus, his uncle, therefore perceiving him— the same who at first boldly declared his opinion advising Xerxes not to march against Hellas—this man, I Bay, having observed that Xerxes wept, asked as follows : ' O King, how far different from one another are the things which thou hast done now and a short while before now ! For having pronounced thyself a happy man, thou art now shedding tears.' He said : ' Yea, for after I had reckoned up, it came to my mind to feel pity at the thought how brief was the whole life of man, seeing that of these multitudes not one will be alive when a hundred years have gone by '."
And so the great army advanced by land, and a multitude of ships accompanied it by sea. But the sea sided with the Greeks and destroyed most of the ships in a great storm. The Hellenes or Greeks were frightened at this great host, and forgetting all their quarrels, they united against the invader. They retreated before the Persians and tried to stop them at a place named Thermopylae. This was a very narrow path, with the mountain on one side and the sea on the other, so that even a few persons could defend it against a host. Here was placed Leonidas with 300 Spartans to defend the pass to death. Right well did these gallant men serve their country on that fateful day, just ten years after Marathon. They held the host of the Persians while the Greek army retreated. Man after man fell in that narrow pass, and man after man replaced them, and the Persian army could not advance. Leonidas and his 300 comrades lay dead at Thermopylae before the Persians could go ahead. In the year 480 B.C. this took place, 2410 years ago, and even to-day one's heart thrills to think of this unconquerable courage; even to-day the traveller to Thermopylae may see with tear-dimmed eyes the message, engraved in stone, of Leonidas and his colleagues:
"Go tell to Sparta, thou that passest by,
That here obedient to her words we lie."
Wonderful is the courage that conquers death! Leonidas and Thermopylae live for evermore, and even we in distant India feel a thrill when we think of them. What, then, shall we say or feel of our own people, our own forbears, men and women of Hindustan, who right through our long history have smiled and mocked at death, who have preferred death to dishonour or slavery, and who have preferred to break rather than bow down to tyranny ? Think of Chittor and its peerless story, of the amazing heroism of its Rajput men and women ! Think also of our present day, of our comrades, warm-blooded like us, who have not flinched at death for India's freedom.
Thermopylae stopped the Persian army for a while. But not for long. The Greeks retreated before them and some Greek cities even surrendered to them. The proud Athenians, however, preferred to leave their dear city to destruction rather than surrender; and the whole population went away, mostly on the ships. The Persians entered the deserted city and burnt it. The Athenian fleet had, however, not yet been defeated, and a great battle took place
43
near Salamis. The Persian ships were destroyed, and Xerxes, thoroughly disheartened by this disaster, went back to Persia.
Persia remained a great empire for some time longer, but Marathon and Salamis pointed the way to its decline. Later we shall see how it fell. For those who lived in those days it must have been amazing to see this vast empire totter. Herodotus thought over it and drew a moral from it. He says that a nation's history has three stages : success; then as a consequence of success, arrogance and injustice; and then, as a consequence of these, downfall. 16
41 /네루의 세계사편력
So Darius was defeated at Marathon. He died in Persia later, and was succeeded by Xerxes. Xerxes also had the ambition to conquer Greece, and he fitted out an expedition for this purpose. And here I shall take you to the fascinating story as told by Herodotus. Artabanus was the uncle of Xerxes. He thought there was danger to the Persian army in going to Greece, and he tried to induce his nephew Xerxes not to war against Greece. Herodotus tells us that Xerxes answered him as follows :
" There is reason in what you say, but you ought not to see danger everywhere or to reckon every risk. If whatever comes up you are going to weigh everything alike, you will never do anything. It is better to be always an optimist and to suffer half the amount of evil, than always to be full of gloomy anticipations and never suffer anything at all. If you attack every proposal made without showing us the right course to follow, you will come to grief as much as those whom you oppose. The scales are evenly balanced. How can a human being know certainly which way they will incline T He cannot. But success generally attends those who wish to act; and it does not
attend those who are timid and balance everything. You see the great power which Persia has attained. If my predecessors on the throne had held your views, or without holding them had had counsellors like you, you would never have seen our kingdom become so great. It is by taking risks that they made us what we are. Great things are achieved through great dangers."
I have given this long quotation because these words of his make us understand the Persian King better than any other account. As it happened, the advice of Artabanus turned out to be correct and the Persian army was defeated in Greece. Xerxes lost, but his words still ring true and contain a lesson for all of us. And to-day, when we are trying to achieve great things, let us remember that we must pass through great dangers before we can reach our
Xerxes, the King of kings, took his great army across Asia Minor and crossed to Europe across the Dardanelles, or the Hellespont as it was called in those days. On his way, it is said, Xerxes paid a visit to the ruins of Troy town, where the Greek heroes of old had battled for Helen. A great bridge was put across the Hellespont for the army to cross; and as the Persian army went across, Xerxes surveyed it, seated on a marble throne on top of a hill near by.
"And," Herodotus tells us, "seeing all the Hellespont covered over with the ships and all the shores and the plains of Abydos full of men, then Xerxes pronounced himself a happy man, and then he fell to weeping. Artabanus, his uncle, therefore perceiving him— the same who at first boldly declared his opinion advising Xerxes not to march against Hellas—this man, I Bay, having observed that Xerxes wept, asked as follows : ' O King, how far different from one another are the things which thou hast done now and a short while before now ! For having pronounced thyself a happy man, thou art now shedding tears.' He said : ' Yea, for after I had reckoned up, it came to my mind to feel pity at the thought how brief was the whole life of man, seeing that of these multitudes not one will be alive when a hundred years have gone by '."
And so the great army advanced by land, and a multitude of ships accompanied it by sea. But the sea sided with the Greeks and destroyed most of the ships in a great storm. The Hellenes or Greeks were frightened at this great host, and forgetting all their quarrels, they united against the invader. They retreated before the Persians and tried to stop them at a place named Thermopylae. This was a very narrow path, with the mountain on one side and the sea on the other, so that even a few persons could defend it against a host. Here was placed Leonidas with 300 Spartans to defend the pass to death. Right well did these gallant men serve their country on that fateful day, just ten years after Marathon. They held the host of the Persians while the Greek army retreated. Man after man fell in that narrow pass, and man after man replaced them, and the Persian army could not advance. Leonidas and his 300 comrades lay dead at Thermopylae before the Persians could go ahead. In the year 480 B.C. this took place, 2410 years ago, and even to-day one's heart thrills to think of this unconquerable courage; even to-day the traveller to Thermopylae may see with tear-dimmed eyes the message, engraved in stone, of Leonidas and his colleagues:
"Go tell to Sparta, thou that passest by,
That here obedient to her words we lie."
Wonderful is the courage that conquers death! Leonidas and Thermopylae live for evermore, and even we in distant India feel a thrill when we think of them. What, then, shall we say or feel of our own people, our own forbears, men and women of Hindustan, who right through our long history have smiled and mocked at death, who have preferred death to dishonour or slavery, and who have preferred to break rather than bow down to tyranny ? Think of Chittor and its peerless story, of the amazing heroism of its Rajput men and women ! Think also of our present day, of our comrades, warm-blooded like us, who have not flinched at death for India's freedom.
Thermopylae stopped the Persian army for a while. But not for long. The Greeks retreated before them and some Greek cities even surrendered to them. The proud Athenians, however, preferred to leave their dear city to destruction rather than surrender; and the whole population went away, mostly on the ships. The Persians entered the deserted city and burnt it. The Athenian fleet had, however, not yet been defeated, and a great battle took place
43
near Salamis. The Persian ships were destroyed, and Xerxes, thoroughly disheartened by this disaster, went back to Persia.
Persia remained a great empire for some time longer, but Marathon and Salamis pointed the way to its decline. Later we shall see how it fell. For those who lived in those days it must have been amazing to see this vast empire totter. Herodotus thought over it and drew a moral from it. He says that a nation's history has three stages : success; then as a consequence of success, arrogance and injustice; and then, as a consequence of these, downfall. 16
41 /네루의 세계사편력
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